My #30DayMapChallenge 2023 entry
For the 30DayMapChallenge this year I made zero maps. None. So I decided to make this blog at least.
It’s not like I have been away from the keyboard and or not making maps in November. The opposite. It has been a busy month at work, but most of the things I do currently are not really shareable on public channels, and/or they are results of teamwork so I wouldn’t really feel good about posting those just as my own creations.
Secondly, the challenge has been all along about having fun and a voluntary effort. I feel like this was the first year when I also fully accepted this message myself and have had very minimal level of FOMO. I have been able to enjoy a healthy work-life balance in November and occasionally open up various apps on my phone and be blown away by the maps I see in my feed.
Talking about the platforms and various apps, I am not a fan of what happened to Xwitter.
Every year I have tried to emphasize that the challenge isn’t dependent on Twitter, but now when Xwitter wasn’t really what it used to be, I felt like the challenge lost its home base. All of the APIs that were previously used to collect statistics or things like 30DayMapChallenge bot were now broken. Some people suggested that the challenge could move to Bluesky, others were suggesting Fediverse. Instagram and LinkedIn had also a bunch of mappy content during the month. As my career as a cartographic social media influencer hasn’t become a full-time job (or even part-time), I felt like keeping up with all of the platforms is more or less impossible.
In late October, I was hesitant if the challenge should happen at all, but based on the feedback I got, I realized that there very much is a demand for the challenge. When looking back at the stunning and creative work people have been making around the world, I have no doubt that it was a good idea not to bin the challenge.
I would be very tempted to add some beautiful maps from others to this blog post. But once again I’d emphasize that the #30DayMapChallenge is not a competition on who makes the most beautiful map or who makes the most maps. Every entry is just as valuable. I will be updating the portfolios I find online to 30DayMapChallenge.com just like previous years.
This was the fifth year of the challenge and in total tens of thousands of maps have been created. Exact number is impossible to count as the work has spread across so many platforms, some maps are posted in multiple platforms and I’ve heard about several occasions where the challenge has happened offline too. My rough estimate is that the total number of maps is close to 50 000 at the moment. Which is just insane. Especially when taking into account the general quality of the maps that people produce.
I will make a few new year resolutions related to the challenge and put those here in a written form so I won’t forget those. So for the 2024 challenge:
I will do an overhaul on the website. Both visuals and in terms of relevant content
I will do a bigger change for the categories
I will explore ways of better handling the multi-platform approach
I will try to include others to the process of running the challenge and generating content. Who and how, I don’t know. Drop me a message if you have ideas and are interested.
I want to express my gratitude and tip my cartographer's hat to each and every person that took part in the challenge. I'd especially like to thank the folks who have been around for each and every year 🙏